Beijing to Xi’an
We were leaving Beijing to travel to Xi’an which is the home to the Terracotta Warriors. This is certainly up there with The Great Wall when it comes to ticking off another ‘must do’ during our travels.
Xi’an is one of the oldest cities in China and was the starting point of the Silk Road, and of course the home of the Terracotta Army. It is located south/west of Beijing at a distance of 1,200km. There are numerous Bullet Trains between the two cities and takes 4.5-6 hours. Our mode of transport was by a plane which took 2 hours.
Shopping and Sights
We weren’t flying out of Beijing to X’ian until the afternoon so there was some time to fit in some more sites (and shopping). There aren’t many tours you can book on that doesn’t include some sort of ‘educational’ shopping stops. These are visits to a warehouse type setups that show you how items are made but ends up with you being herded into a rather expansive retail area. You wander around looking at the merchandise all the while being tailed by a sales assistant which has probably been assigned to you as soon as you walk in the door.
This tour wasn’t any different and we visited the mandatory shopping stops. We don’t mind too much, especially if they are few and far between. Some of the stops are actually quite interesting, especially if there is a demonstration as well.
I did notice that none of the shopping stops proved to be lucrative to any of the retailers as no one from our group bought anything during the entire tour.
Jade and Pearls
Jade Factory
The Jade Factory was on our way to the Great Wall. We wandered past the workers labouring away at the jade carvings.
There was a man bent over his workbench carving a Happiness Ball. This has several smaller balls within them. It is a highly kept secret on how they actually can do this as there are no apparent joins. Each ball represents one generation of a family and all the balls are united together in one large ball. Thankfully our backpacks do not allow for such purchases as I’m sure Scotty would have purchased one!
A solid jade ‘ding’ (top left), intricate sailing ship and the making of a Happiness Ball
We then had a demonstration on how to tell real jade from fake. If you tap the item with a coin, the jade will make a high pitched sound, whereas the fake jade makes a dull, low pitched sound.
Jade comes in dark and light greens, browns, yellows and whites…which is from Beijing.
Pearl Factory
China is the largest producer of freshwater pearls in the world.
Once again, we were given the demonstration on how to tell a fake pearl from a real pearl. One has to check the colour, size, shape and blemishes. Luckily I’m not into wearing a string of pearls so we wandered around with our assistant in tow until everyone had finished doing the same…….yawn!
Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum
Located 40km northeast of Xi’an, the Terracotta Army was discovered in March 1974. A couple of farmers thought that they’d dig a well – they got more than they bargained for. They struck upon one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the world. It was a life-size clay soldier poised for battle.
They notified the Chinese authorities. Further excavations found thousands of clay soldiers, each with unique facial expressions and positioned according to rank. They were once brightly coloured but because a vegetable dye was used, it oxidised when exposed to air. Hence they have returned to their natural colours. Further digging revealed swords, arrow tips and other weapons in pristine condition.
Just 1 of the 3 pits, before reconstruction of the damaged warriors and after
Soldiers are in trench-like, underground corridors. In some of the corridors, clay horses are aligned four abreast with chariots behind them.
It took over 40 years to construct
Covering an area of 6 acres, there are four pits in total, three of which have been uncovered. About 8,000 warriors, 100 chariots, 400 horses, and more than 100,000 weapons have been unearthed from the three pits so far.
It is extremely difficult to find two similar figures in the three pits. Every soldier has his own facial features, which means there are 8,000 different faces in total. There were only eight moulds used to make the profile of each soldier’s head. The 8,000 distinctive faces were carved by craftsmen individually, which definitely took a massive amount of manpower.
Because of the oxidising, excavations have stopped until further investigations into the best way to preserve the colours are developed.
The terra-cotta army, as it is known, is part of an elaborate mausoleum created to accompany the first emperor of China into the afterlife, according to archaeologists.
It is believed that it was part of an elaborate mausoleum created to accompany the first emperor of China in the afterlife approximately 2,200 years ago.
Eighth Wonder of the World
It has been described as the 8th wonder of the world. It was absolutely staggering to stand there and look down on one of the uncovered pits.
I don’t think we really appreciated just how massive this site actually is. The amount of work involved in making all these figures and setting them up and all in their correct formation is staggering.
The bronze chariots were smashed into 7,000 pieces
We also saw the two bronze chariots that were to accompany the emperor’s spirit into the afterlife. One had been smashed into 7,000 pieces and took 8 years to reconstruct.
Arson and Looting
Archaeologists say they have proved that the Terracotta Army was robbed of its weapons and figures broken and burned. This is why they are faced with the massive task of reconstructing most of the army figures, chariots and horses.
They suspect the destruction took place not long after the completion of the army by disgruntled villages lead by a military leader who overthrew the dynasty.
Visiting the Terracotta Warriors will certainly remain in our memories as one of the most amazing human feats ever to have been completed. Click on the link below for some more highlights.